The Transfer
by LinaBeal
Summary: Something's up at DC's NCIS, and Abby's in the dark.  But what will she do with a dead Marine and a Transfer she does&doesn't want? Both show's complete crews make an appearance. T cause is a messy murder case, and Eric/Abby all the way.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1, or Abby gets a super-big surprise

"Hey Abby!" Tony called as he saw her rollerblading down the hallway. Gibbs must not be in yet- he was definitely not on the "rollerblading-through-NCIS" bandwagon.

"What Tony? I'm up to my elbows in DNA assignments!" she called over her shoulder. "We don't have a case, so Gibbs told me to update the Team's DNA security."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Tony said. "Here." He gave her a little container that doctor's offices use to take pee samples, but this one had blood.

"What's this, Tony? I've had your blood since yesterday morning."

"Oh, it's not mine," he said. "It's our transfer's. He's coming in today and Gibbs wants him cleared."

"Transfer? Why do we need a transfer?"

"Well, since McGee had to move to Vermont for a couple months to take care of his sister, Gibbs needs a techie hacker. So the Director got him one."

"Yeah. Who is this guy? Assuming it _is_ a guy. I mean, it could be a girl, but I don't know many fabulous girl hackers. Assuming I know him. Or her," Abby asked/added in her usual stream-of-consciousness fashion. "I mean, do I know him?"

"Oh, you might know him," Tony replied, and smirked as though he found that statement extremely amusing. Which to Abby was infuriating.

"Who is it, Tony?"

"It's a surprise, Abs. Now just go and get it done," Gibbs told her, appearing as always, from nowhere. "And take those skates off while you're at it!"

"Aye-aye sir," Abby said, and bent over to unlatch the blades, but not before she heard Gibbs make a comment to Tony.

"DiNozzo, you lost your mind?" Gibbs asked, smacking him. "The only way- the _only_ way- that he would take this job was if she didn't know it was him until he could talk to her. I'm already down McGee, DiNozzo. I need him."

"Okay, boss. I'll be more careful."

_Weird_, Abby thought, but she walked toward the elevator to get down to her lab.

When she got there, Ziva was waiting outside the door.

_Double weird_, she thought.

"Hey Ziva. What's up?"

"Oh, just stopping by to see how the DNA was going," Ziva said casually, and then she noticed the container in Abby's hand. "Oh! You got the Transfer's sample."

"Would everyone just tell me who this stupid transfer is? Because I know you know," Abby vented.

"Really, Abby, I do not know what it is you are talking about."

"Abby rule #1: Don't lie to Abby."

"Okay, I do know. But Gibbs told me I was forbidden to tell you. Something about "simulations" of his transfer," Ziva told her.

"Stipulation, Ziva," Tony said as he entered.

"And you wonder why everyone hates English, Tony," Ziva said huffily.

"Gibbs wants us upstairs," Tony said, quickly changing the subject.

Abby set down the container and her rollerblades to follow Ziva.

"Only me and Ziva, Abs," Tony said. "You just ID our 'mystery' transfer."

"Took the idea from my head," she said. _Why couldn't she know this guy?_

She was running DNA recognition through the server when her lab door opened. She turned to give Gibbs a piece of her mind.

"Gibbs I don't know what's going on here, but I want to know who-"

Only it wasn't Gibbs. It was the nerdy, thick-framed glasses-wearer with blond hair she'd wished for over every birthday candle since the "Phantom Incident". He used ASL to sign, "Hi Abby."

Abby was so shocked to see him so close she just looked at him before signing back, "Hi Eric."

* * *

"Eric? What are you doing here? Hetty and Callen and Nate and Sam and Kensi need you!" Abby exclaimed after the longest silence in her life. Sure she was happy to see him, but the LA crew had to be missing him.

"I'm here because-"

But he didn't get to finish because Abby's computer dinged.

"Sorry Eric, but I have to do this," she told him. "There's this new transfer coming in today and I need to get his DNA cleared before he gets here. But he's really weird because supposedly I know him, but he didn't want Gibbs to tell me he was coming , which is stupid because if I knew him he would have told me he was coming, which means I actually don't know him, so I'm going to smack Tony when I see him because he lied to me and-"

"Abby, breathe," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders and sending a chill through her spine. She maneuvered out of his arms and turned. She wasn't going to be a part of this game he was playing. Sure, he was the guy she wished for on the Evening Star and all, and he saved her from the Phantom, but after that…

She turned and saw Eric's face from his NCIS ID staring back at her from the computer screen.

"Eric? But you-"

But Abby's lab phone rang.

"Abby's forensic lab and resident pizza parlor, where a CafPOW is always on the menu- What can I do for you?"

"Abs?"

"Gibbs, I want to know what's going on," she told him.

"And you will know, in a bit. Send Beal up here," Gibbs ordered.

"Who?"

"Eric Beal, Abs. I know he's down there."

She hung up.

"Gibbs wants you upstairs, Eric," she told him matter-of-factly. The overall shock of Eric appearing in her lab had worn off, and she could how remember what he had done after she left LA. And she wasn't going to let him get away with it.

"Abby?"

"Yeah?"

"I missed you." That hit her like their emergency van.

"Go upstairs, Eric. Gibbs gets impatient." She was _NOT_ going to respond to his comment. Not when he couldn't possibly miss her more than she missed him. Not with what he had done.

Eric looked a little startled, but nodded and left. The door slid shut behind him, and Abby slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

"I missed you too, Eric. More than you know."

* * *

(A/N) Hi. I'm LinaBeal, and I will be talking down here at the end of every chapter. Well, not every chapter.

Eric: More like rambling.  
ME: Don't make me murder you.  
Abby: Why would you do that?  
ME: To be able to write your reaction to it.  
Abby: I'm just some writing exercise to you?  
ME: Well, somewhat. But tell you what- if 10 people review, I won't talk to you down here for a whole 3 chapters.  
Eric: I would pay you.  
Tony: No you wouldn't. You like fame just as much as the rest of us.  
Ziva: Well, Tony more than the rest of us.  
ME: 'Kay, review please!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2, or the NCIS: LosAngeles team goes nuts

"Where's Gibbs?" Eric asked when he got up to the bullpen.

"Ah, our 'mystery' Transfer arrives," Tony said, using air quotes. "See Abby yet?"

"Yeah. Thanks for not telling her."

"Why again were we not allowed to let the mouse out of the bag?" Ziva asked.

"Cat, Ziva. It's let the _CAT_ out of the bag," Tony said automatically. "He's probably upstairs talking to Hetty, groveling at her feet for letting us transfer you."

"Okay, thanks," Eric said. _Those two are quirky_, he thought. _But they have a certain "Nate and Kensi" vibe, like the two of them have all this attraction-tension, but stick to banter. And I was trying to get away from all that_.

Eric went up to the video room to find Gibbs indeed talking to Hetty, thought he wasn't exactly groveling.

"Thanks Hetty, I owe you one," Gibbs said. "Was it hard to convince Beal?"

"Much easier than I thought," Hetty replied onscreen. "I think it might have something to do with that gothic Sciuto girl you have over there."

Eric, unnoticed and in the shadows, blushed deeply, because he knew she was right.

"Eric dear!" Hetty exclaimed, noticing him and making Gibbs turn around.

"Beal! Hetty wanted to talk to you," Gibbs said. "Bye, Hetty. Thanks." And with that, Gibbs left.

"What's up?" Eric asked, somewhat nervously.

"Oh, I don't have much to say, except that you must remember that if you should ever feel the need, you just need to call and I will get you on the first plane back."

"Uh, thanks, Hetty," Eric replied, confused._ That was it?_

"That is all from me," she added and left the frame. The empty space was quickly filled by Sam, Callen, and Nate.

"Hellloooo, Eric Beal!" Callen said.

"Uh… hi guys."

"So, you seen Abby yet?" Sam asked. _Crap_, Eric thought. _Not going to think about it, not going to think about it, not going to think about HER_.

"Who?" he asked, semi-innocently.

"Sort of your height, black hair usually in pigtails or braids, Forensic scientist, Gibbs' little girl, has a spider web tattoo on her neck, a giant cross on her back, two more there, one on her ankle-" Nate stopped.

"And the girl you desperately want to screw," Callen added.

"Callen!" Nate exclaimed, giving said person a very Gibbs-like smack.

"Nate, you forgot the one on her left hip," Eric corrected him reflexively, and immediately regretted it.

"Whoa! Maybe our little Eric is getting more play than we thought!" Callen said.

Eric blushed. "No. She just told me she had a tattoo there. It's a .40 caliber pistol bullet."

"Damn," Sam muttered. "There's no way she told you all that."

"Do you guys actually need something?" Eric asked, exasperated.

"We miss our favorite hacker, Eric," Nate said.

Just then the feed room door opened.

"Eric?" Abby's voice rang through the near-empty room.

Eric turned crimson. _Why the hell did her voice have to do that to me?_

Callen made a whistling motion.

"Over here," Eric mumbled.

"Oh! Eric!" Abby exclaimed, hugging him. _Okay, what is she on?_ "Oh! Hi guys!"

"Hi Abby," the boys chorused.

"How are you holding up in LA?"

"Pretty good. We miss our little boy," Callen teased, supposedly trying to sound like a dad, but it's Callen, so he just sounded weird.

"It's pretty well, Callen," Nate corrected.

_Abby, are you sure you're not mentally unhinged?_ "What's up, Abby?" Eric actually asked.

"Oh! So there's this Marine, and he's dead, and Tony and Ziva are already there and Jimmy and Ducky are leaving soon so Gibbs wants you down there but he needed a bathroom break so he told me to go and-"

"Abby, take deep breaths," He told her, putting his arms on her shoulders and feeling the electricity he felt all over his body. "Just give me a minute with these guys."

"Okay, she said, but before flouncing out she turned and kissed his cheek, which worked like a stun gun, freezing him where he stood. Then she skipped out. _What the hell just happened?_

As soon as the door closed, Callen actually whistled.

"You got that girl wrapped around your finger after one day?"

"She's, like, bipolar, though," Eric told him, his words sounding awkward. "When I went down to her lab not ten minutes ago, seeing her for one of the first times since LA, she was, like, frigid-cold. She completely ignored my comment when I said I missed her. Now she comes up here and kisses me."

"Three letters, little bro'," Nate said. The four of them were like brothers, and since Eric was the youngest, well, he got stuck being "baby brother". "P-M-S."

"I doubt it's her hormones," Sam said.

"You think our Eric could get play without a little help? I mean I know Abby likes him, but still," Callen added.

"Gee thanks. While you all discuss Abby's hormones, Gibbs's got some hacking for me to do, and it's my first day, so I'm gonna try not to piss off the boss," Eric told them, and turned to leave.

"Eric, wait. The real reason we called was to tell you that we don't blame you for leaving," Sam told him. "I mean, we tease you about Abby, but we're like your brothers- we have to. We just use Abby because other than her, you don't seem to have many chinks in your armor that we can play off of. So sure, we bring up her tattoos and crap, but I saw her back in LA during the "Phantom Incident", and just now. I know you like her, and I know the only reason you transferred was because of her. And I know she's worth it. So get out there, steal her heart, work there for a couple months and then get your ass back to LA because we need you too. Kensi tried to hack into a personnel file today and got stuck at the firewall. The Firewall!"

Eric smiled. "Thanks, guys."

"Now go kick some DC murderers' asses. Show them how we do it West Coast style," Callen said.

Now Eric had to grin as he left the feed room. When he got downstairs, he smacked into Abby.

"Oh, hey Abby." She Gibbs-smacked him. "Hey! What was that for?" _God, she was bipolar!_

"For talking about me behind my back to Callen, Sam, and Nate," Abby told him.

"We weren't-" he started, but a look from Abby made him stop. "Okay, we were, but how did you know?"

"Callen fake-whistled, Nate was using his horrible poker-face, and you were the color of a strawberry."

"Oh…"

"And just so you know, you owe me for that."

"For what?"

"I kissed you, so now you'll get less crap." He couldn't agree with that logic. But that just made him sad as he realized that her mood swing in his favor was fake. So she was just pissed at him. _Fabulous_.

"Thanks," he said, and took a shot in the dark. "Hey how about dinner tonight? I know this good DC Italian restaurant- Lugiano's."

"I love Lugiano's! I'll be in the bullpen at six-thirty," she told him, and to Eric seemed to be much less pissed and cold.

"But we get off at five."

"We have a case, Eric. We'll get dinner at six-thirty if we're lucky. See you at the scene. I'm hitching a ride in Ducky's van." She kissed him lightly and flounced out. _For the second time today_, he noted. _The only difference is that this time she seemed to mean it, instead of it being for show. God, I hope this gets better._

But he didn't get time to ponder, because his cell rang. Thinking it was Gibbs, he looked at it, but it was Sam's cell. He answered.

"Miss me already?"

"Shhhh… I'm in the bathroom, Eric," Sam said. "I can't let anyone on the team know I made this call."

"What Sam?" Now Eric was concerned.

"Eric, you'd better be back as soon as McGee can return. LA is falling apart without you. Nate said something complicated about us missing our 'fried Ed', whatever that is." (A/N: "Freudian id". look it up)

"What do you mean?" There were only a handful of times when Eric could qualify his team to have fallen apart.

"I mean, we're emotionally out of whack. You know Nate's in love with Kensi, right?"

"He has been, for like, forever." However, Kensi has had none of it, for as long as he'd know the pair.

"Well, Kensi is actually holding his hand in the office, and she sat on his lap during the meeting, playing with his hair." _Wait, WHAT?_

"I beg your pardon? That's serious. Did you check her system for drugs?"

"This isn't a joke, Eric. Callen's all jealous about it too. He's been brooding in his chair glaring at the two of them for the past hour. This place is a freaking madhouse."

"How's Hetty?" Eric was afraid to hear the answer.

"Well, besides singing old Scottish sea chanteys that Ducky taught her and wandering the vicinity clutching an empty bottle of sherry, she's just peachy." _Oh God_, Eric thought. _I've only been gone two days, and what? Hetty's a drunk loon, Nate and Kensi are INVOLVED, Callen is actually showing a romantic emotion- jealousy-, and Sam's hiding from the nutty team in the bathroom_. "Eric, you've got to get back here as soon as you're done. I don't think I can take it."

"Sam, I want you to call me in two days from the bathroom again with a status report," Eric told him. "You all need to be safe when I come back."

"Ah! Got to go. Callen found me. He's asking stupid questions like what Kensi sees in Nate." In the final seconds before the call ended, Eric could hear Sam saying, "Callen, get a grip!" _If Callen wasn't so drunk on his own jealousy, he would have punched Sam for that_, Eric thought. He went to the bullpen and found Gibbs waiting for him.

"Come on Beal, let's go," he said, and Eric obediently followed, his life so completely turned upside down that all he could do was follow.

* * *

(A/N) Hi.

Tony: Is that all you can come up with? Hi?  
Ducky: Well, Tony, I believe it is a perfectly acceptable greeting of someone her age.  
ME: MY AGE? What am I? Forty-seven? that is when it is perfectly acceptable to say something is perfectly acceptable!  
Tony: You showed him, LinaBeal.  
ME: Sorry Ducky. Having Tony in my head makes me a bit... Tony-ish.  
Ducky: That's reasonable.  
ME: Glad you agree.  
Jimmy: Wait... when can I appear?  
Kensi: Or me?  
ME: Not for a while, Kensi, but Jimmy, you get some awesome teasing in the next chapter.  
Tony: You mean...  
ME: TONY! Get your mind out of the gutter it came from!  
Jimmy: I am here to deliver the message to read and review, because LinaBeal is currently bludgeoning Tony with his own shoe... Thanks! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3, or Eric almost pukes on evidenciary carpet

"Abby, could you help Mr. Palmer with our poor officer here? He's had quite a fright," Ducky asked Abby, and she was happy to oblige.

"So Abby," Jimmy started. "How's Eric?" She had been happy to oblige until _then_, that is.

"Oh, he's fine, I guess," she replied, trying to sound nonchalant like all those movie star actresses did in the movies, but she knew it wasn't working. _I mean, how can a girl with a spider web tattoo ever look nonchalant?_ she thought. "I mean, I haven't seen him that much, but he seemed okay."

"Ducky, whatcha got?" Abby heard Gibbs ask, and turned to find him and Eric standing in the door of the house. The crime scene was more brutal than usual, yeah, but Abby figured Eric had been to enough crime scenes to not look like he was going to hurl.

But apparently she figured wrong, because it looked like she was about to become intimately acquainted with whatever Eric had for lunch.

"Boss, you sure we can't bag this stuff?" Tony asked, referring to the casings sitting behind a chair.

The Marine himself was hung upside down from the ceiling by his ankles. Several gunshot wounds were scattered on the Marine's body and head, along with what looked to be a heart with a wide "V" above it sliced into his back. Four of the Marine's fingers were cut off and placed in arrow-tip formations, pointing at two words drawn it blood on the carpet- "blood" and "tears".

"No, DiNozzo, you take a picture, and then bag. What is this? Your first case?" Gibbs snapped. Abby helped Jimmy seal the Marine into a body bag, then walked over to Eric. She had missed him so much, but he'd also hurt her, leaving Abby alone and confused as to which feelings she should follow.

"Hey," she said, and Eric looked at her. His irises were a saturated blue behind his thick-rimmed, nerd-chic rectangle-specs. This, combined with his tousled blond hair sticking up in every direction, made Abby want to trust the feelings that loved every biological cell that made up what she called "Eric".

"Hey," he said, looking, though strikingly handsome, very sick.

"Are you okay?" she asked, putting a hand on his arm, and reveling in the electricity that shot from her hand. "I mean, it wasn't bad tuna or anything. I've heard that tuna is seven times more likely to be bacterially infected than any other commonly prepared fish."

"I'll keep that in mind," Eric chuckled. "It's not that. I just don't get out much."

"All the fresh air doing you in?" she joked.

"At the moment I wouldn't exactly call the air fresh," he replied, laughing outright.

"Oh! You mean-"

"Yeah, pathetic, isn't it? I work with a crime investigation team and yet in the face of gruesome murder I pale and am about to show the whole team the contents of my stomach." Eric weakly laughed. "I bet Gibbs thinks I'm a wuss, am I right?"

Abby looked over at Gibbs, who was giving Abby a look that definitely said, "What are you doing? You should be helping Ducky, not holding onto the new guy so he doesn't puke, no matter how caring you are," while the look he was giving Eric Abby interpreted as, "You can't even hold your stomach at the sight of blood. You'd make a lousy Marine." Abby had to laugh at that.

"What?" Eric asked, and Abby could see he thought he'd missed something.

"He doesn't think that, Eric. Stop worrying." She gave him an electrifying hug and left to help Ducky. _Please, oh please, Eric. For your sake, mine, and the whole team's, keep your lunch where it is_.

"So nothing going on with Eric?" Jimmy asked Abby, in an obnoxious, "gossiping, 1980s best friend"-kind of suspiciousness. She felt her cheeks grow red.

"None of your business, James Alfred Palmer," she said, knowing that using his full name would shut him up. And really, she needed that. She needed everyone to just leave her alone for like, a half hour, so she could corral her thoughts and everyone could be on their merry way. And her head wouldn't explode.

First there was the group dynamic to think about. Without Tim to be the butt of Tony's jokes, Tony had become silent. It was freaking her out. Because Tony was silent, he screwed up more, thus earning more smacks from Gibbs and less interaction with Ziva, which Abby could tell was killing Tony.

Then there was the sheer "Transfer" problem, not even getting into the fact that the Transfer was Eric. By getting a Transfer, Gibbs was temporarily replacing Tim, something Abby was _not_ okay with. But then the identity of the Transfer was kept secret from her. Why? Did Eric think that if she knew he was coming she would be waiting at the elevator, machine-gun at the ready?

Which lead her to Eric. Oh, Eric. He was an enigma to her in and of himself, and completely paradoxical. He was perfect, yet very, very flawed. He kept secrets, but told her everything. And he always did the right thing, except when he didn't. And that particular issue was what landed Abby in this position. Without the issue, she could love him unconditionally, adoring his flaws that made him human. Well, as much as she could, considering she wasn't big on sappy love stories. But it had happened, and now she didn't know where she stood. Hell, she didn't know where _he_ stood. They'd never discussed it.

_Well, you didn't exactly intend on seeing him again after it happened_, she told herself. _You didn't talk about it because you figured whatever had possibly been between you was non-existent now. Figured that he'd be someone you tlove old your children about. Except without Eric, who else had lever liked me? Okay, so he would be someone you told Tony and Ziva's children about, her godchildren. But you never figured he'd come back for you, did you?_

"No, I didn't," Abby said aloud.

"What Abs?" Gibbs asked. "I wanted to know if you needed a lift back to NCIS."

"Oh. Yeah."

"Well," Gibbs started, but seeing the tranced look in her eyes, just pulled her into a hug, something she appreciated. _He didn't know why I'm dazed_, she thought. _He just knew I needed a hug. This is why I'll always bee Gibbs' girl. I should have gotten t-shirts for Kate, Ziva, and me_. Abby smiled.

"Thanks, Gibbs."

"No prob, Abby."

* * *

(A/N) Hey. Thanks for reading.

Abby: How do you know they are reading if they don't review?  
Eric: She doesn't. She just wants to wish that.  
Abby: Don't crush her hopes. Why do I like you again?  
Eric: Because you love nerds, those who can ASL, and blondes. I'm all three.  
ME: shut up you two. They don't want to hear your banter.  
Abby: I wasn't aware they wanted to hear anything besides actual chapters.  
ME: Fair point. Just please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4, or Eric gets chewed by DiNozzo

"So what you're saying is, I'm a moron?"

"No, I'm just saying you're wrong," Tony calmly replied.

Oh, this was getting on Eric's nerves. After he had stopped the feeling of the floor inverted over his head and the need to puke his guts, Eric thought he had been helpful in the field, considering his lack of experience. Tony, however, disagreed.

"How was that wrong? I took the evidence to Abby when we got back," Eric said. _Like you'd have done something different. It's what we do in L.A._

"_Before_ you cataloged it," Tony explained, and Eric could tell he was trying to keep his voice even. "Now Abby has to waste her time logging all the evidence before she can even get started."

"I didn't know. Nate usually takes care of that. I'm just a tech, Tony."

"Well we don't do it that way in DC. And if you're just a tech, then it was pointless to bring you out because you can only do half the work that McGee can," Tony told Eric, losing his temper. "Get your ass back to L.A., Beal. We don't need half-help. We need McGee."

Eric was glad they were alone in the elevator, so he wouldn't get chewed out by Tony in front of the team. Even so, he also wished there was someone here on his side, so he wouldn't be facing of the wrath of a guy who missed his best friend.

"Look, Tony, I don't mean to screw things up," Eric started. "And I know you guys want McGee back. I wish he was here. But the thing is, you've got me. And sure, I don't have all the agent training of you, or Tim, or Ziva, but I'm learning. I know I'm not doing it _your_ way, but I'm trying to do it _some_ way, just to get it done. If you'd rather I sit on my ass for the next couple months, by all means, I'd be happy to. But if you want me to help, let me try with _my_ way, and I'll learn _your_ way along _the_ way."

Tony looked like he was about to say something, but the elevator dinged, and he closed his mouth. _Saved by the bell_, Eric thought.

"Hello, boys. Nice of you to join us," Ziva said when they reached the bullpen. Tony's pictures from the house and a couple of "pre-death" shots of the Marine (driver's license, Marine ID, etc.) were on the screen. Eric immediately sat at McGee's, or his, desk, and started fiddling with the images. _I don't want to walk into that one_, he thought. _It's like a minefield_.

"Twenty-six year old Marine, Petty Officer Myles Keaton," Gibbs said, walking in from the direction of the elevator. "Ducky's working the autopsy."

"Does it make a difference whether he died from the knife or bullets? He's still dead," Eric mumbled, but the look Ziva shot him told Eric he was glad Gibb's hadn't heard him.

"Married?" Gibbs asked.

"Fiancée- Kelly Spinter. We've already got her coming in," Tony said. "She was at a yoga retreat all weekend."

"Alibi solid?" Gibbs shot back.

"Has three friends, two coworkers, an instructor, and the hotel concierge who all were in contact with her at some point or another."

"She did not even use the restroom alone," Ziva added. Eric liked this way of working. It was fast-paced and interesting. But a question ate at him until he spit it out.

"Then why are we bringing her in? Her alibi's solid. She didn't kill Keaton," Eric blurted.

"But she might know who did," Gibbs said, and Eric realized the stupidity of his question. With that they all left, as if a meeting of the minds had called, telling them where they should go. This left Eric standing there stupidly, wondering if his telepathic "service" had no bars, or something. He just knew he didn't get the memo.

* * *

With nothing else to do, Eric went down to Abby's lab.

"Hey Abby," he said. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't log the evidence before bringing it down here for you. Nate usually does this for us, so I wasn't thinking, and then Tony told me you were getting backed up because you had to log things and I felt really bad about it, so I stopped by to see-"

Abby cut him off. "It's okay, Eric. You didn't know. Stop beating yourself up about it." _It's not me kicking my ass that I'm worried about_, he thought.

"I just feel like I don't belong here. All I do is screw up everyone else's jobs.

Abby turned from her computer to give him a sympathetic look and a hug. "You're not out of place. You just need to find your niche here. You know where yours is at home in L.A., and you're quickly figuring out what McGee's is here. What you need to do is mesh the two and you've got where you'll fit in here."

Eric let that sink in. _Abby's right_, he thought. _I need to stop trying to be McGee, and start being myself_.

"So what would you do if you were working on this case at home?" Abby prompted.

"I would check the database to see if the heart symbol and the two words resemble other cases."

Abby's face lit up, and Eric couldn't help but feel proud that he had been the one to light up her face, whether she was mad at him or not. "That's a great idea. I hadn't even thought of that. And I'd bet a CafPOW! Gibbs hasn't either." Abby gave him another hug, and Eric noticed her chin fit right into the crook of his neck. That made him smile. Maybe he had a little hope of stealing her heart after all.

"Good luck, Eric." He didn't know if she was wishing him luck on his symbol theory or on stealing her heart. He figured the luck was good either way.

* * *

(A/N) Thanks for all who read.

Tony: Yeah right. You hate these people, 'cause they don't review.  
ME: TONY! I can't take you anywhere.  
Ziva: Neither can I. That's why you got stuck with him  
Eric: Can anyone explain why we're arguing at the end of her chapter?  
ME: I can't even explain it. And I'm the one writing the damn thing.  
Eric: HEY! You can't say that!  
Tony: What? Damn?  
Eric: HEY!  
ME: Okay, please review so that these crazies will stop arguing in my head, Tony will stop teasing Eric, and Eric will not have a fit. Love to All!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5, or Occum's Razor

So she _had_ thought about the heart symbol already. And Gibbs probably had too. So sue her. She just couldn't squash that hopeful face Eric gave her, like a kid on his birthday. Well, more like a new guy with a chance at impressing his boss, but the two were pretty much interchangeable to Abby. She just hoped Eric could find something about it before Gibbs, Tony, or Ziva did.

While she was crossing her fingers, toes, and ankles for Eric, Abby got something. Her hand was hovering over the phone receiver, intending to call Gibbs, when her lab door opened.

"Whatcha got, Abs?" Gibbs asked.

"Okay, seriously, Gibbs?"

"Yeah, seriously."

"You must have a camera down here or something."

"What are you talking about, Abs?"

"You _knew_ I had something. I hadn't even called you yet."

"No I didn't." _So much for that theory_.

"Okay, well, we found casings behind the chair, and a gun behind the couch. I assumed the casings and the gun matched, like the casings were fired by the gun and stuff-"

"Never assume, Abs."

"Would you let me finish?" She was very close to Gibbs-smacking Gibbs himself. "But none of the casings match the gun."

"So there's another one out there."

"Yep."

"Got it. Let me know when you get anything else," he added, and started walking out.

"I'm not done." He stopped. _Honestly_. "I analyzed the gun- the one that was at the scene, the one that didn't match the casings? Well, it seems that one bullet was fired from that weapon."

"By Keaton."

"That's what I assumed, and before you say 'Never assume, Abs', I knew from my first mistake to double check the outside. There is one set of prints that belong to Petty Officer Keaton, but also a set of smudges, non-prints, of another person. They look like the product of cheap, dollar store pair of plastic gloves."

"Okay." And he turned again.

"Would you quit that?"

"What?"

"Walking away, when I'm not done yet!"

"Something wrong?" Gibbs asked, in a tone of getting irritated himself.

"No, I'm fine, thanks for asking," she replied, trying to keep the bite out of her voice and calming herself down. "I checked the number of the gun, and it was issued to a Marine."

"Who?"

"Well, I don't know. There's a killer security system in place keeping me from cracking the password."

"I'll get Beal."

"What?" She tried to keep her voice from sounding scared. As much as she wanted Eric to succeed and as much as she loved him, she really didn't want to deal with him. Or the problem that happened after L.A. She figured if she ignored it, it would just go away. _Now I guess that's not really going to happen_.

"This is what we transferred him for, Abby."

Abby again put her hand over the receiver of the lab phone, when the person she was intending to call burst into the lab. This time, it was Eric.

"Would everyone stop reading my mind already?" Abby asked, exasperated.

"What did I just walk into?" Eric asked Gibbs, but only allowed a few moments of confusion before he got really excited again. _There must have been something to his symbol search_, Abby thought, proud. "Anyway, I thought there might be something to the heart symbol carved into Keaton's back, or the two words written in blood in the carpet."

"And?" Gibbs prompted. Abby was praying he wouldn't murder Eric. The paperwork alone would set her back days.

"And I found something," Eric started, and she could sense a lot of information was going to start pouring out of his mouth. She also noticed Gibbs' face had not yet changed. "First came the fingers and the words. Apparently there is a tradition to cut off a deceased's fingers and use them to point to a message, though it isn't usually written in blood." He used her computer to pull up a "107 Rituals of Curious Origin" site. This "finger ritual" was number ninety-six. _They must have run out of all the good ones by ninety-six if they get to "finger arrow" rituals_, she thought. "That could point to any number of things. But the 'blood and tears' comes from a specific quote by Oscar Wilde, I found. '_And with tears of blood he cleansed toe hand/ the hand that made the steel/ for only blood can wipe out blood/ and only tears can heal._' This was the most popular quote when I looked up blood and tears, next to Winston Churchill's 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears' speech, and some weird punk band's song lyrics. I find it odd that classic literature like Wilde has fallen so far that some punk band-"

"The point, Beal?" Gibbs asked, though this time Abby could tell it was more out of Gibbs' natural curiosity than being bored by Eric's ramblings. For some reason Eric's ability to impress/rivet his boss made Abby swell with pride. Maybe a little had to do with her involvement in his discovery of this lead. Or maybe it didn't.

"Well, I knew it was that quote the words were referring to because of a later discovery, but first I looked into the symbol on Keaton's back." At this, Gibbs grew cold.

"We already looked into the heart symbol. Nothing. Once we find ourselves a suspect, that's going to be the first thing I ask him," Gibbs said.

"See, but I was looking too, and I wasn't finding any heart symbol involving a 'V', just like you were. But then I had a thought. All this time we were assuming that the way we first perceived it, a heart below a 'V', was the way it was drawn. But if he was standing up when the murderer drew it-"

"We don't know it was the murderer who drew that symbol, Beal," Gibbs interjected again, but Abby noticed his curiosity creeping in again.

"But whoever wielded the knife, regardless," Eric continued, getting excited, "could have done so while the head was above the feet, not the other way around. If this is true, and we flip the symbol-" He did so digitally on Abby's computer.

For a moment Abby didn't see a thing. IT was only an upside-down heart and a "V". _Eric, this is nothing. Gibbs is going to kill you for sure_. And then she saw it. And she instantly thought that Eric Beal was possibly the most intelligent person she had ever met.

"Eric!" she exclaimed, and would have said more, but Gibbs' cell went off, and she quieted. The one rule Gibbs had never made, but everyone followed was when his phone rang, all those in the vicinity instantaneously shut up.

"Yeah," Gibbs said, stretching to word to two syllables, and listening. "Okay, Ducky. Be right over." He turned to Eric and Abby. "Abby, come on. I want to hear the rest of your theory too, Beal. You done good."

And with that Gibbs set off for autopsy, leaving Eric and Abby to follow.

"Eric," Abby said. She was just so proud of his success. She was happy Gibbs had praised him; something rarely does, even when forced. "You did it. See? You just had to do your job your way and Gibbs said you did well. I just-"

And Abby would have babbled much longer if Eric hadn't put his arms around her waist and kissed her hard in her black lipstick. At first she was shocked, and nearly pulled away. But to her it felt so right, and so she let her subconscious take over. She put one hand on the nape of his neck, and one twisted in his blond hair.

Abby was halfway up to the clouds when an image slipped into her mind. It reminded her of the other side of her Eric- the one that hurt her. She broke away quickly and ran down the hallway, mascara and eyeliner beginning to drip at the corners. _You did the right thing, Abby. He would have hurt you_. But she could only find half of herself believing that. _No matter whether he would have hurt me or not, I made the choice. And I just ruined my chances_.

She left Eric staring blankly in the hallway outside her lab. And she almost didn't care. Her life was too confusing with Eric. _Occum's Razor_, she thought. _The simplest answer is to cut him out entirely. So that must be the right answer_. But did what just happened with them prove she couldn't do that? Even Abby couldn't guess.

* * *

(A/N) Hey guys. Yeah, heavy stuff. What do people think Eric did? Cause I think it'd be fun to see what other people think.

Ziva: Really? All that emotional stuff just occurred, and you're thinking about a review challenge?  
ME: Yeah. Why?  
Kensi: I think what Ziva is saying is that this is a little too light for such a weird chapter.  
ME: ARE you calling MY STORY weird?  
Kensi: Maybe.  
ME: That's it. I'm breaking up you and Nate.  
Kensi: HEY! Wait! You don't have to do that! Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it.  
Nate: You have that kind of power? I don't think so.  
ME: Try me.  
Nate: Okay... Yikes. I'm sorry I pushed you. I just want to keep Kensi.  
Kensi: As you should.  
ME: Kay, this is getting way off topic. But I guess that's what these are for. Read and Review. It's better than iced tea on a hot day and a warm-blooded guy in the arctic.  
Nate: Wait, what?  
ME: Nevermind.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.1, or Eric and Sam's brother-to-brother time

Eric was confused. Beyond confused. _I thought she liked me_, he thought.

"What?" his pocket asked. Not only had he spoken his thought aloud, but his pocket had dialed Sam's cell on accident. Now Eric had some serious explaining.

"Uh, hi Sam," Eric said.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that this 'she' is Abby?" Sam asked.

"Well, uh…"

"Listen, Eric. This isn't my first rodeo," he said, and Eric almost laughed. He couldn't imagine Sam saying that. He thought they only did that in movies. "Just tell me what happened."

"I, uh, well, I kissed… well, I kissed Abby," Eric stuttered. _I'm becoming less coherent than Nate on coffee_, he realized.

"Seriously? Not that cheek crap you two have been pulling? Or the cheek kiss she gave you, Callen, and me after Phantom?"

"No, It was… the real deal," Eric felt weird saying that. _Well, I just feel weird about this whole… freaking conversation_, he thought. _I mean, I've heard Callen and Sam talk about this kind of stuff, and Sam and Nate when it involves Kensi, and Nate and Callen when it doesn't, but to be first-hand invested in this stuff is weird. I just hope it offers insight to me like it seems to in the others_.

"And?"

"It was nice. I felt like I was losing the parts that made me myself and becoming an extension of her. It was the most wonderful feeling I've ever experienced. And don't you dare repeat any of this to Nate or Callen," Eric added, thinking about what he said. _If I thought I got crap about Abby now_, he thought, and shuddered.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Sam's voice suddenly got frighteningly grave. "NCIS:LA's got enough problems without teasing you about Abby." This statement only served to unsettle Eric more.

"What happened?" Eric needed to know.

"Nate and Callen beat each other up. Over Kensi."

* * *

(A/N): DUHN-DUHN-DUHN! Sorry about the dramarama. And Sorry about the cliff-hanger.

Sam: Put in a cliffhanger, why don't you... It's not like this story need any more dramarama...  
Eric: JEEZ. Make me all stuttering...  
Abby: I think it's cute.  
Eric: Really?  
Sam: *projectile vomits on the floor*  
Kensi: Tell them how you really feel...  
Sam: I believe I just did.  
Eric: Kensi, shouldn't you be doting on the guys? They were all chivalrous about fighting for you...  
Kensi: Yeah, not so much. I'm not gonna say much though because LinaBeal might stick a recount of the fight in there later, & I don't want to spoil it.  
Abby: How very valiant.  
ME: Hey, Abby, you are not currently on good terms with Eric... What are you doing here?  
Abby: Right. *melodramatically burst into tears and runs away*


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7, or Eric and Tony bonding... sort of...

"Sorry, Beal. I don't think there's any chance in hell Gibbs is going to let you leave for L.A.," Tony said.

"I have to go. They're falling apart without me. They just- I need to go back there. I can't… I can't stay here and watch my team… fall apart. I need to go back," Eric countered.

"But I don't think that reasoning's going to help you. Gibbs is still going to be at your ass. He's not going to be able to let you just… go away, right after he got you. We can't lose you. We already lost McGee." Eric couldn't tell if this was spouting from Tony's side that would want him here as a person, or this side that wanted him here because he was an asset to the team.

"Are you saying you _care_ that I'm here?" Eric asked hopefully.

"No. What I'm saying is, _Gibbs_ cares that you're here. And if you want to even think about leaving, you need some serious proof from the case that you need to leave," Tony explained, then added bitterly, "because there's no way he's letting his techie-hacker out of his sight. You're far too precious for that." Eric could sense some snark in his last comment, but right now his L.A. team needed him.

"But Nate and Callen are beating each other up over _KENSI_! That's not something I can just ignore!"

"You're going to have to," Tony said.

"Are you saying I should just ignore want may be going on and not deal with it?" Eric was starting to hate Tony. He was so disconnected from people, especially in emotional stress. If he couldn't crack a joke about it, Tony closed himself off and showed no emotion. Eric almost wished he knew how Tony had gotten that way, but right now he was too pissed to contemplate.

"That's what you have to do."

"Have to do? What? Why?"

"It's what you have to do when you're in _here_," Tony replied, motioning at the NCIS headquarters' walls. "You have to put the case over anything else that may be going on."

"Seriously? I can't do… I just… I can't separate the two," Eric said, feeling on the edge of a breakdown. All of the Nate and Callen and Kensi stuff had just started to sink in. Before then it was almost nightmarish.

"Well, you're just going to have to try." A silence dropped.

"Is that what you did? You just… separate your life from everything else?" Tony didn't speak. "So I take that as a yes. You don't _deal_ with your life. Hey, whatever I, well, I mean, whatever works for you. But does it work for me?" He didn't wait for an answer. "No. It doesn't. But, well, between Kensi, and Nate, and Callen, and Sam, and Hetty, and Abby-"

"And Abby?" Tony interrupted.

"Oh god. It's just-"

"What happened to Abby?" Tony was apparently choosing to ignore Eric's 'Don't go there' stare.

"Well, we sorta, maybe, kinda-" Eric was stalling. No way was he divulging his love life to Anthony DiNozzo.

"Look, I don't even want to know. All I'm saying is, you need to separate the two fast. Because Gibbs is going to come up here in sixteen seconds, and you're going to need a good reason as to why you weren't in autopsy five minutes ago, and why you ran up here like a sissy and talked to Sam on the phone. And why you suddenly want to go back to L.A. when you were assigned _here_. You were transferred _here_. You can't just give up a transfer."

Eric stopped. He needed to decide.

"But my team-" he started.

"Who the hell cares about your team?" Tony asked. _I do_. "We're your team now. And our team? Needs you. Our team needs you to hack into the Marine Ops system and get the name of the guy the gun was issued to. Because Abby sure as hell thinks it wasn't Keaton."

"What do you- wait. What?"

"I hate dealing with probies. They're like, the most obnoxious things I deal with in my life." _Really?_

"Okay, seriously? I don't really care about all this crap you're dealing with the Probie, or the Transfer, or a missing McGee, or whatever. All I know is, you need to fill me in. Yeah. I'm part of your team now. So treat me like it."

"Fine. Abby, and this site, and the-" Eric was tired of this.

"Spit it out."

"The gun that we found out at the site Abby found was issued to a Marine. She thinks that Marine isn't Keaton. So she was trying to figure out who this Marine was, but she got blocked by a super-security system even she can't crack. So she wants you to hack it. And Gibbs wants you to hack it. And they also want to know more about your symbol."

"How did you know about the symbol? I only told them about that ten minutes ago. Gibbs has been in autopsy with Ducky this entire time. So how do you know about it?" The look Tony gave him explained it all. "Seriously? Abby? I can't believe she tells you guys everything."

"It's part of who she is Eric. You just get used to it. _Sage advice from a guy with more tension with a girl than a stretched rubber band_. Tony brightened, like he always died when he knew something and was going to tease someone about it. "By the way- apparently you're a really good kisser."

"What?" He felt his head being smacked- most likely by Gibbs.

"Beal? Whatcha doing?" Eric drew a blank. _What did Gibbs want me doing_?

"I'm, uh… I'm…" He wracked his brains. "…Hacking something… yeah…" _That sounded good_. Tony elbowed him- because _apparently_, he wasn't able to make up good excuses.

_Augh, Tony, just stop that. Why can't I just do what I think I can and come up with things _my_ way?_

"Beal, you were supposed to be in autopsy ten minutes ago," Gibbs growled. "Where were you?"

"I was… I went up here… because…" he trailed off.

"Beal." Gibbs' tone was not encouraging. "Where's Abby?"

No that question he had _not_ been expecting. So he answered honestly. "I don't know, Boss."

"But I need Abby. She still has things to explain to me."

"I don't know where she is. She just, left."

"I'll get Ziva to check the bathrooms," Tony sighed, and left, leaving Eric alone with Gibbs.

"Okay, now tell me really why you're up here, Beal."

"It's my L.A. team." Eric paused. _Might as well_, he thought. "Nate and Callen were beating each other up over Kensi."

"What are you on?" He'd never heard Gibbs say that, and he had a safe bet that Tony had never heard him say that.

"I'm _on_ the fact that my team is coming apart without me- Hetty's a fruitcake, and Sam's… hiding from people in bathrooms. He's a Navy SEAL! He doesn't 'hide' from anyone! He just stands there and sticks it out! So if Sam's in bathrooms and Hetty is singing sea chanteys? I worry! You think I'd worry. You'd worry too!"

"I don't get where this is going."

"And now my team needs me and I need to go to L.A."

"No. You're not going back to L.A. This is not happening. You're not going to deal with it. Just suck it up- we've got work to do. You need to hack into the marine system gun register-"

"I need- I mean- I just-" but the look Gibbs gave him told him to shut up, get to his computer, and hack it out. So he did. It's not like he had anything else better to do.

Tony doesn't understand him, Ziva can't say any type of euphemism ever used in the English language, Abby was pissed at him, sad about him, who knows what. She was in a bathroom, black makeup dripping, and Ducky? Well, he hadn't met Ducky, but he was sure he could find some way to piss the M.E. off. And Gibbs was also currently pissed at him because he wanted to go back to L.A, while he left his team in complete dysfunction.

_Sounds like a wonderful day to me.

* * *

_

(A/N): So thanks to everyone for the reviews. Sorry about what's going on two consecutive chapters of angst and dramarama. One more of these puppies and we'll be back to our regular scheduled programing.

Note on the door of the NCIS/NCIS:LA door: Out for the day, seeing as it is 11:30 at night, and most of us like our beauty sleep. Therefore, there will be no playful banter or witty jokes or funny comments in this chapter currently, because school started, and though LinaBeal loves her some fanfic, she loves her some sleep more. Love, your NCIS/NCIS:LA charaters

I might add a conversation here later, but I wanted to get it up, and its late.


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